February 2009 Observations

[Scrabbleship]

Ride On 5501 on the 96 leaving Grosvenor yesterday afternoon.

[ChristopherF]

RIDE ON:
935546 on the 22 (Silver Spring)
5122 on the 22 (Silver Spring)
015588 on the 10 (Twinbrook)
995813 on the 46 (Montgomery College Rockville)
995721 on the 54 (Lakeforest)
025596 on the 47 (Bethesda)
055952 on the 54 (Rockville)
055946 on the 46 (Medical Center)
025592 on the 5 (Silver Spring)
025606 on the 20 (Hillandale)
995410, stuck in silver 4ever, on the 15 (Langley Park)
085736 on the 10 (Twinbrook)
065754 on the 10 (Hillandale)

METROBUS:
6139 on the NH1
4020 on the NH1
4349 on the 32
9768 remains @ Montgomery.
2378 on the R2 (Calverton)
2354 on the R2 (Calverton)
From which garage does 9310 operate out of?

[wmata employee]

4020& 6139 Does not always operate on the  NH1

[ChristopherF]

METROBUS:
6107 on the NH1
4020 on the W4
4349 on the 32
9334 is now an Arlington bus
9340 is either an Arlington or a Royal bus (block unknown); bus was seen @ West Falls Church
9360 on the 28A (King Street Sta) with an R block
9766 remains @ Montgomery.
4242 on the 3B (Falls Church Sta); I hadn't seen that bus for many months until today (2/6)
2609 on the 38B (Farragut Square)
2403 on the R2 (Calverton)
From which garage does 9310 operate out of?

[Scrabbleship]

Ride On 5004 finishing up a T2 run over at Willard & Wisconsin. Looking quite full too. Maybe the weekend T2 should have stayed in Silver Spring and have not migrated to Nicholson...

[Perry]

A few standees isn't so bad, if that even happened.  I like the idea of smaller buses from an efficiency point of view.  We pull a lot of the double decks and artics off the road on weekends and replace with 40 footers.  We've received one complaint that I know of from someone whining about it, but their fare doesn't guarantee a seat, so you just take the praises with the complaints.  If there were people passed up that's one thing, but that's not normally the case.

If people have to stand, it's not normally a biggie, they usually don't have to stand too long.  But it's better than running an artic that doesn't even have all of its seats filled just for the purpose of everyone having a seat.  That just screams waste when you have larger half-full buses rather than more fuller smaller buses out there.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Ride On 5004 finishing up a T2 run over at Willard & Wisconsin. Looking quite full too. Maybe the weekend T2 should have stayed in Silver Spring and have not migrated to Nicholson...

Nicholson has 35 footers that are supposed to be assigned to most (but not all) T2 blocks.  The questions in my mind are was this a 30 foot or 35 foot block, do the block assignments in terms of 30 footers vs. 35 footers accurately represent typical rider demand, or was this just an anomoly?

Even if there were a few standees on this T2, there are a fair number of boardings and alightings, depending on the direction, along River Road near the Fresh Fields and McDonalds, only a few minutes travel time from Friendship Heights.  My guess is that the standees weren't even on the bus for very long, so it really isn't a huge problem if that is the case.

[rideonrulez]

It's normal for a baby Gillig to be on the T2 on the weekends. But that might change this summer....

[Scrabbleship]

It's normal for a baby Gillig to be on the T2 on the weekends. But that might change this summer....

This shows how often I spend time in Friendship Heights on the weekend nowadays if I hadn't noticed this before .

Your quote makes me wonder if some of the next order with Gillig are 35' buses.

[79MetroExtraMD]

6018 4172 @ UMD
The "bug" has hit Mogo buses. For some strange reason, only New Flyer buses are experiencing this problem.

[LandoverDivision]

6018 4172 @ UMD
The "bug" has hit Mogo buses. For some strange reason, only New Flyer buses are experiencing this problem.

Wrong. The NABI 60-BRT also said 3835 or whatever.

[79MetroExtraMD]

So that rules out being exclusively a New Flyer problem. I'm beginning to think its probably something with the work assignment being loaded onto the CD system and for some reason, the route numbers don't show up correctly. I know its supposed to change automatically, but as for this four digit numbers showing up, that's still beyond me. I haven't seen any Orion Vs, VIs, or VIIs (and O2s) that are experiencing this problem so far. As it stands, Bladensburg, Landover, and Montgomery buses are having this problem.

[LandoverDivision]

So that rules out being exclusively a New Flyer problem. I'm beginning to think its probably something with the work assignment being loaded onto the CD system and for some reason, the route numbers don't show up correctly. I know its supposed to change automatically, but as for this four digit numbers showing up, that's still beyond me. I haven't seen any Orion Vs, VIs, or VIIs (and O2s) that are experiencing this problem so far. As it stands, Bladensburg, Landover, and Montgomery buses are having this problem.

You forgot Four Mile Run. Someone said that they saw an Orion VII with this porblem.

[rb8888]

Yesterday at 2pm I saw 4208 on the 80 (Fort Totten) wrapped in a yellow Ikea ad.

[ChristopherF]

RIDE ON:
055950 on the 54 (Lakeforest)
055954 on the 54 (Rockville)
065754 on the 34 (Friendship Heights)
075756 on the 34 (Wheaton)

FAIRFAX CONNECTOR:
7772 on the 950 (Reston Town Center via Herndon-Monroe P&R)
9719 on the 950 (West Falls Church Metro via Herndon-Monroe P&R)
7870 on the 401 (Franconia/ Springfield Metro)
7872 on the 401 (Tysons West Park Transit Center)
7875 on the 109

PRTC OMINRIDE:
364 (West Falls Chruch Metro)
355 (Manassas)

DASH:
36 on the AT7 (Duke & Pickett)
97 on the AT8 (Landmark Mall)

METROBUS:
6126 on the NH1
4405 on the NH1
4349 on the 32
9303 remains @ Royal.
9320 on an unknown route in DC, block unknown
9321 remains @ Arlington.
9324 remains @ Arlington.
9330 remains @ Arlington.
9342 on the 29 line
9376 on the R2 (Ft Totten)
9769 remains @ Montgomery.
4208 on the 80 (Ft Totten), now wrapped in the IKEA ad
4239 on the J2 (Montgomery Mall)
4240 remains @ Arlington.
4261 on the 4A (Culmore)
4262 remains @ Northern.
4311 on the Q2 (Shady Grove Station)
4310 remains @ Northern.
4331 on the 32
4330 remains @ Montgomery.
4358 on the 10A (Hunting Towers); I'm very surprised that the 1.5-year-old Nationwide Insurance ad wrap still HAS NOT been removed
4398 remains @ Montgomery.
2501-2621: FOUR MILE RUN
2622-2635: BLADENSBURG
2636-2685 & 2701-2730: FOUR MILE RUN
2620, 2621 (which remains @ FMR) & 2638-2668 are PikeRide buses
2669-2673 are 9S Loop buses
2599 on the 38B (Ballston Station)
2616 on the REX (King Street Station)
2625 on the 86 & is no longer in the NGV wrap
2629 on the 86 & is no longer in the NGV wrap
2653 on the 16A & is no longer in the NGV wrap
2658 on the 7A (Pentagon)
6047 on the F8 (Langley Park)
2624 on the R2 (Calverton)
2300 on the R2 (Calverton)